


Table Five

by purpleisbetter



Category: Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Waitress AU, cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 04:22:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5443163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purpleisbetter/pseuds/purpleisbetter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Waitress AU for a prompt that someone posted on Tumblr a while ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Table Five

**Author's Note:**

> My friend says this feels unfinished. What do you think?

“Hey Carmilla, I just sat you at table five,” Glenda says as she walks through the back door. I slowly glimpse up and notice the rain pounding against the window, then slowly glance back to Glenda. “I know. I know. I’m not sure why she’s here but she is, and you’re the only server here, so put the book away and hop to it.”

If she were anyone else, I would probably say something snarky and flip them off. Since its Glenda and she is old enough to be my grandmother, I find it hard to disrespect her. Instead, I sigh and close my book. As I stand up, I take a quick peek at my watch and note that it's five minutes to ten.

“You sat someone when we close in five minutes?”

She at least has the nerve to look a little guilty before she responds, “I know but it's pouring and she looked cold and helpless. What was I supposed to do?” She throws her hands up. “You know how hard it for me to turn people away. And this girl was especially hard to say no to, you’ll see.” Before I can respond, she leaves through the same door she came in from.

I don’t know what she’s talking about, I have no problem saying no to people; especially people who come into this restaurant right before we are about to close.

Begrudgingly, I make my out to table five. From behind I notice that the girls honey brown hair is soaked from the heavy rain. When I get close, I see that she has small white towel. I inwardly roll my eyes because I’m sure that was given to her by none other than Glenda. That woman swears she is everyone’s grandmother, but hey that’s why everyone loves her.

“I see that you’ve met Glenda.” I nod towards the towel in her lap. She turns away from the window to look at me with a confused look on her face before glancing down at the towel.

“Oh, uh, right, yeah, she’s nice.” She looks a bit flustered, so I decide to take it easy on her.

“So cutie, what can I get for you tonight?” She looks down at her watch then out towards the rain again.

“Can I have two hot chocolates, please? My friend should be here soon.” I sigh because that means I’ll be stuck here even longer.

“Anything else?”

“No, that’s oka-” The growl coming from her direction  made us both look at her stomach. I raise my eyebrow and she blushes.  “Okay I’ll have some chocolate cookies, please.”

“It’ll be right up, cutie.”

“Thank you, Carmilla” she says as she squints at my name tag. “Huh that’s different. I like it.”

Honestly I don’t feel like being very social at the moment. It’s already five minutes passed closing time, I should be on my way home by now. “Thanks, it’s a family name,” which isn’t necessarily a lie.

Before she could say anything else, which I had a feeling she would, I walked away to get her meal; well if you call hot chocolate and cookies a meal.

“Here you go, two hot chocolates and a stack of warm chocolate chip cookies.” She jumped and turned her phone off.

“Oh, thank you, Carmilla.” Her eyes were cast downward and her mood shifted completely within the few minutes that I left.

“Hey everything okay, cutie?” She seems surprised that I asked; hell I’m a little surprised that I asked.

“Oh, uh yeah, it’s just that my, uh, friend isn’t answering her phone and she was supposed to be here already. She’s not usually this late so I’m a bit worried. I’ve tried calling and texting her but I haven’t gotten a response yet.” I don’t think she took a single breath in that whole rant of hers.

“Maybe she’s just stuck in some traffic. It’s pouring out there and you know how awful people drive when there’s a little water falling from the sky.” I’m not exactly sure why I’m trying to comfort her. There’s something about the sad look in her eyes or maybe it’s her desperate tone of voice. Whatever it is, it needs to stop. “Anyway, if you need anything just call.”

I walk away and head back behind the counter. A minute or so later Glenda comes from the back room with her coat on and an umbrella in her hand.

“I’m getting too old to be up this late. I should probably think about retiring.” I roll my eyes because she says this every night.

“You’d never retire; you’d miss this place too much.” She has been here for at least a hundred years; she’s going to die in this place.

“Yeah, well,” she shrugs. “I’m going to get going. Everything is done, so all you need to do is lock up.” She throws me the book I was reading before. I sigh and look towards table five again. She’s still looking down at her phone and then out towards the rain.

“Thanks, it looks like she’s going to be here for a while.” I say with a groan.

“Maybe you should talk to her, it’ll make the time go by a little quicker.” She gives me a knowing look and heads for the door. “Goodnight, see you tomorrow.” I give her a small wave when the bells above the door jingle as the door closes behind her.

Glenda would suggest I talk to her. Glenda would suggest that I talk to a stranger in an alley. Instead, I kick my feet up on the counter and open my book.

“Uh, sorry to bother you but can I have another hot chocolate?” The girl at table five looks at me with such a shy look that I, once again, have a hard time saying anything rude to her.

Reluctantly, I get up to get her another cup of hot chocolate. As I place the fresh cup on her table, I notice the empty plate that was once filled with cookies. “Would you like some more cookies as well?”

“Uh yea, that would be great. Thanks, Carmilla.” I note that she has said my name about three times now. Usually customers just wave me over, or say ‘hey you, miss, or ma’am,’ they never pay attention to my name unless they are hitting on me which rarely happens in this highly unattractive uniform. I wonder why she keeps saying my name. She hasn’t tried to use a lame pick up line; maybe she’s just really polite.

When I return with her cookies, I overhear her talking on her phone. “We were supposed to meet here about an hour ago, but you still aren’t here. I hope everything is okay. Call me soon.”

“Still no response, I see,” I say as I place the cookies in front of her. It’s cute the way her face lights up when she sees the plate of cookies. She starts digging in before I could get a response. She glances up at me with crumbs falling out of her mouth and I silently raise an eyebrow at her.

“Sorry,” she wipes her mouth, “did you say something?”

With a light chuckle, I repeat what I said. “I overheard you on the phone, have you still not heard back from your friend yet?” And just like that her face falls.

“Not yet. It’s so not like her. I mean she’s usually early or on time, and if not she would have called me by now. I tried calling all of our friends to see if they’ve heard anything but I’ve got nothing. I’m not sure what else to do. What if something is really wrong?” Her big brown eyes begin to water but the last thing I want her to do is cry.

I slide into the booth across from her and gently stroke the back of her hand, hoping that I’m not crossing any boundaries. “I’m sure she’s fine. Maybe her phone died or something.” Her eyes focus on my hand that is still slightly stroking hers. I’m not sure if I should stop or not, but she doesn’t stop me so I continue stroking her hand.

“This is just not like Danny at all. I mean I was a half an hour late because of traffic and I thought she would go all crazy on me as soon as I walked through the door only to see that she wasn’t here yet. And I thought maybe she got caught in the traffic too because it’s pretty bad out there. But she hasn’t called since nine which was” she looks at her phone, “an hour and a half ago!” She runs a hand through her hair. “I was too busy rushing out of work to hear my phone ring so I missed her call completely. I decided to just wait until I got here to talk to her instead of trying to call her back while driving in the storm. My father always told warned me about driving while talking on the phone and I didn’t want to make it worse with the storm. And now I’m ranting because I’m nervous and worried so I’m going to stop now.”

I silently stare at her for a while to make sure she’s really done. “What?” She asks when she notices my eyes on her.

“Do you take breaths in between sentences?” She blushes and ducks her head down.

“I know. I talk a lot; I hear it all the time, but I figured you sat down so you were willing to listen. Besides it’s not like there are any other customers here to keep you busy.”

“That’s because we closed thirty minutes ago, sweetheart.” Big brown eyes widen in surprise.

“You’re closed?” I nod. “Then why did the other lady let me come in and sit down?”

“That’s because in the year that I’ve worked here, I’ve never seen Glenda turn anyone away. She said something about you looking cold and helpless,” I shrug.

“I’m so sorry! I thought this was one of those twenty four hour diners or something. My friend Danny said that she drives by this place every day on her way to work, but she’s never been inside so I thought we should come check it out.” She checks her phone again. “You probably want to get home and instead you’re stuck here babysitting me. I’m going to get goi-”

The shrill ringing of her phone cuts her off. A confused look crosses her face as she looks at the caller ID before answering. “Hey Mel, wha-” I can’t hear what the other person is saying but I’m sure it isn’t good because the girl’s face quickly becomes sullen. “She just called why wou-.. you know what never mind.” I feel really bad for eavesdropping on her conversation but something in me just doesn’t want to leave her side right now. “Yes, I’m fine.” The tears that are forming in her eyes are saying otherwise. “Bye.” She ends the call and stands up suddenly. “I need to go, how much do I owe you?”

The quiver in her voice makes me want to give her a hug, and I don’t even like touching strangers. “You know what? Don’t worry about paying; it’s my treat.” I give her a small smile hoping to ease some of her pain. She opens her mouth, but I stop her. “Really it’s not a big deal, just go.” She gives me a grateful smile and rushes out of the door.

I hope whatever happened works out for her. She seems too sweet to deal with too much pain.

I take a few minutes to clear and clean table five before heading home for the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next night I find myself in a very similar position from the night before. I’m sitting in the back with my feet up and my nose in a book.

“Sorry to ruin your fun, but you’ve got a table.” This time when I look at the clock, I’m happy to see that it’s only nine instead of five minutes before closing. “It should be the last one for the night so I’m going to head out.” Glenda leaves with a quick wave.

I put my book down and straighten out my uniform before going to check on my table. As soon as I step out of the door, I notice someone sitting at table five again.

“Hello, wh-” I pause, I know this face. “Oh, hey there, cutie. Nice to see you again.”

A small smile plays on her lips, completely different from last night. “Oh hey, Carmilla.”

“Glad to see you’re back. What can I get you tonight?”

“Can I have the same thing but just one hot chocolate this time?” Her voice is missing that upbeat tone it had yesterday, I kind of miss it.

“Coming right up, cutie.” I leave to get her hot chocolate and cookies, but make sure to keep my eyes on table five. She seems really down so I make sure to add an extra cookie, hopefully that does something to lighten her mood. Who is this girl and why do I care so much about how she feels?  I try to shake off these thoughts as I bring her things to the table. “Here you go, let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

She smiles as I put the items on the table. I shake my head, this girl and her sweets. “Thank you; I’ll probably need more cookies. I’m in the mood to eat my feelings tonight, so don’t go too far.”

If that wasn’t an invitation, then I don’t know what was. “Anything you feel like talking about?” She opens her mouth to say something, but quickly shuts it. She does this a few more times and I’m wondering if she’s practicing for the role of Nemo in the new Finding Nemo. “Don’t hurt yourself or anything. You don’t have to talk about it.”

“It’s just that I don’t know where to begin. There is just so much to say and I don’t even know what to think about everything.” She groans and begins eating the cookies.

“Does this have anything to do with that phone call from yesterday?”

She sighs. “Yea it does.” She takes another bite of a cookie and I sit down in the booth across from her.

“Well what happened?” I am really curious but that’s only part of the reason why I’m trying to talk to her. The other reason is that a part of me wants her to be the girl I saw yesterday; the happy girl with the bright smile.

“You remember me telling you about my friend Danny?” She asks with crumbs on the side of her mouth. It takes everything I have not to wipe the crumbs off softly with my thumb.

“Yea I think I remember that name from one of your many rants last night.” Her brown eyes brighten a bit then she chuckles slightly.

“Right, well last night I was hoping to bring her here as a sort of date.” A part of me feels a little dejected when she says this but I maintain a straight face. “We’ve been doing this whole sort of flirting thing for a few months now and I thought I’d finally just ask her out. I was trying to be thoughtful and romantic by taking her someplace she’s wanted to go to for a while. Well it turns out that the flirting must have been one sided because while I was here she was out hooking up with some other girl.” Another huge bite of a cookie and a few sips of hot chocolate are gone after that rant. She was not kidding about eating her feelings, but now I can see why she wants to.

“Wait, she flirts with you and hooks up with other people? I have to say she doesn’t seem like your type, cupcake. But I am sorry to hear that.”

She eats another cookie before responding. “Danny usually isn’t like that at all. When Mel told me what happened, I was so distraught. I didn’t want anything to do with Danny. But Danny can be pretty persistent so I let her come to my apartment today to talk about what happened.” She pauses to take a sip of her hot chocolate. “Turns out when it was raining yesterday she attempted to leave but one of her Summer Society sisters convinced her not to drive in that bad weather, so she stayed at her house. When she tried to call, I didn’t answer and her phone died after that. Then while she was waiting for the rain to stop, the girl gave her a few beers. Long story short, they got drunk and hooked up.” Her cookies are now gone and I can’t tell if she’s more depressed over her situation or the fact that she has no more cookies.

Before she starts crying, I rush behind the counter to get her some more cookies. When I return, her mood lifts. “So yea, that’s why I’m here eating my feelings.” She adds. “And telling you about my lesbian drama that you probably couldn’t care less about.”

“Honestly you’re right; I couldn’t care less about lesbian drama. However, when you come into the same diner two nights in a row and consume nothing but sugar, I feel like it would be the nice thing to do to lend a friendly ear.”

“You don’t seem like the type to worry about the nice thing to do if we’re being honest here.” She giggles into her cup of hot chocolate.

“You may be right, I’m usually not one to listen to other people’s problems, but like you said yesterday, it’s not like there are other customers here to keep me occupied.”

“Well thank you for listening. It’s nice to talk to an outside person so I can just vent. All of my other friends are pressuring me to give her another chance. I mean I know that I shouldn’t be too upset because it’s not like we were together or anything, but it hurt, you know? I thought we both had feelings for each other, now I just feel like a fool.”

“If anything she’s the one that should feel like the fool if she could just use being drunk as an excuse to sleep with someone. Besides, if she could ditch you for someone else, is she really worth it?” There’s something about this girl that makes it hard for me to just walk away, something that keeps drawing me in.

“I guess not, I mean I don’t know! She hurt me a lot last night but a part of me still holds these feelings for her.” I swear if she doesn’t stop gobbling these cookies down she’s going to end up in a sugar coma. “What would you do?”

My usual first reaction would be ‘fuck her,’ but she’s too sweet to say anything like that so I give her the censored version instead. “Honestly if I liked someone as much as you seem to like this Danny, I would probably be as conflicted as you are. However, it would be easier for me to just end things before they begin. I would take this as some type of warning for the relationship we would have.” My mouth and my brain must be having communication issues because I just can’t seem to shut up around this girl.

“You know what? You’re right!” She slams her fist on the table. “I can’t possibly pursue any sort of relationship with her if she can do this before it even starts. I mean is she going to use that drinking excuse for something like this in the future?” She jolts up out of her seat suddenly and begins searching through her purse frantically. I think the chocolate gave her a bit too much energy. “I need to go tell her this now before I lose the courage.”

“Yea go tell her how you feel.” Shut up, Carmilla!

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do!” Her red puffed up cheeks make her look even more adorable right now. “How much do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about it, cutie. Think of it as a thank you for killing my last hour of work.” I give her a small smile.

“I’d feel bad if you let me get away without paying again.”

“Oh geez cupcake, just go!” I shoo her away towards the door.

“Well thanks, Carmilla.” She turns towards the door but before she leaves she turns back to me. “By the way, my name is Laura.”

“Ok goodnight, cutie.”

She blushes with a shake of her head and gives me a small wave. “I’ll see you later.”

As I close up the diner for the night, I can’t help but hope that later means tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You must have made a good impression on this girl because she’s back at table five again.” Glenda says as she walks through the back doors.

“I know it’s kind of hard to believe that someone actually likes me.” I mock gasp at her. I pick up my notepad, although I’m pretty sure I know what she’s going to order, and head out to table five.

I have a smile on my face that disappears as soon as I see who’s at table five. I shrug off the weird feeling in my gut and take deep breath before heading over to the table.

“Hey Cutie, I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.” By the daggers Laura’s friend is throwing at me with her eyes, I’m guessing she doesn’t like the fact that I called her cutie. I should do it again.

“Hey Carm,” Carm? That’s new. “This is Danny.” I snap my head to the red-head across from Laura. I smirk and turn back to Laura. This is going to be fun. Laura is throwing me a look that says “be nice” but this is too good to pass up.

“That’s good to know.” I say while keeping my eyes on Laura. “Are you having cookies and hot chocolate again today, Cutie?” Laura blushes every time I call her Cutie, it’s so adorable.

“She was actually thinking about getting burger with fries, an actual meal.” Danny says with a snarky tone.

I look at Laura with an eyebrow raised. “Uh can I have a bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries, please Carm?”

“Sure, Cupcake.” Like I could say no. “And you?” I ask the red head.

“I’ll have the same, thanks,” I take their menus and put the order in the back. Every few minutes or so, I’ll sneak glances over at table five. Laura seems a little not like herself. Her normal bright smile isn’t there and every few seconds she glances around the diner. Whenever Danny says something to her, she puts on a fake smile and nods her head. And Danny continues on like there’s nothing clearly wrong with the brown-eyed beauty sitting with her.

Wait...brown-eyed beauty? Did I really just think that? What the fuck, Carmilla?

“Carmilla, your order is up!” I jump out of my daze and grab the food out of the window. before making my way over to table five, I add one more plate to the tray of food.

“Okay here’s your food.” I place the plates on the table. “Let me know if you need anything else.” As I go to walk away, I hear Danny say something.

“Uh we didn’t order these.” She says pointing at the plate of cookies I put on the table near Laura.

“I know.” I wink at Laura before walking away. I hear Danny’s voice but I’m too far to understand what she said.

When I get a chance, I look over at table five to see Danny glaring between me and Laura. Then I glance at Laura is shyly looking in my direction.

Mission accomplished.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Four days in a row, Carmilla” Glenda interrupts my book yet again. “Your table five is back again.”

The smile I try to hold back comes out anyway. Glenda notices and raises an eyebrow at me.

“Thanks, I’ll be right out.” I clear my throat and head out to table five again.

“Hey Cupcake, back again?” I notice she’s wearing a cute giraffe printed shirt with teal jeans. It’s something I’d never wear but it looks completely adorable on her.

“Uh yea, it’s just something about those cookies, you know?” She blushes slightly and looks down at the menu.

“Right, the cookies.” I smirk at her. “Would you like anything with your cookies?”

Her lips part as if she wants to say something but then she shakes her head. “Just a hot chocolate and cookies, please.”

“Sure thing. I don’t think you even need to look at the menu anymore.” She giggles a bit and I walk away to get her meal.

I quickly go to get her meal and return to her table. Usually I would take a bit longer but I like being in her presence.

“So, Cutie, I see your guard dog isn’t with you today.” I say as casually as possible. She doesn’t need to know that seeing her with Danny was slightly off-putting.

Her face bunches up in confusion. Then a look of recognition crosse her face. “Oh right, Danny.” She lets out a deep breath. “I decided to make the trip alone today.”

Glancing around the diner, I notice that there are only two other people who are sitting at the breakfast bar and being taken care of by Glenda. I decide to take a seat across from Laura again.

“Trouble in paradise?” I take a piece of her cookie while I wait for her answer. She looks a bit offended but doesn’t say anything.

“Paradise? Hardly!” She nearly gulps down the hot chocolate before continuing. “She spent the whole dinner yesterday trying to get me to understand what happened between her and her sorority sister. The whole time she was talking, I just couldn’t stop picturing them together. I mean how can I attempt anything with her if I already don’t trust her?” I need to start putting more cookies on her plate because she is nearly finished already.

“Trust and communication are two important factors in a relationship. You don’t know if you can trust her and every time I looked over here she seemed to be doing most of the talking.” Who am I? Her counselor?

“Yea she had a lot to say. She gets very protective of me and she thought that you were flirting with me. Which is ridiculous because you’re you so gorgeous and confident and I’m just me, very plain and average.” I try to hide my blush when she calls me gorgeous. I mean it’s not like I haven’t been called attractive before but coming from her makes it different.

“There’s nothing about you that’s plain, Laura.” Her head shoots up as if she’s shocked that I said her name. And I realized that’s the first time I’ve said her name out loud. I stand up abruptly, “I’m going to get you some more cookies.”

I rush to the back and take a few deep breaths. Slow and steady.

I return to her table a couple of minutes later with another plate full of cookies.

“Thanks, Carm. I really appreciate it.” From the look in her eyes, I can tell she means more than the cookies.

“No problem, Cutie.” I wink at her trying to regain some of my composure.

When I walk away, I hear those annoying bells signalling that someone is either coming in or going out of the diner. I look up and notice a pretty big party of seven people coming in. I groan because I am the only server left to take their table.

This group is so needy. I have been to their table so many times, I have barely had enough time to talk to Laura. At some point, I saw Glenda go over to table five and hand Laura a piece of paper probably the check. I tried to go over before she paid but of course the table of seven needed more refills.

By the time I was able to go back to table five she was already gone. The only thing on the table was a copy of her receipt with black writing on the back. I quickly turn it over and read the quick script.

_This may be a bit presumptuous of me, but I thought it was worth a try. Thanks for cheering me up and keeping me company. I would love to see you outside of table five, call me._

I quickly put her number in my phone and the note in my pocket. Not even the annoying table of seven makes my smile falter for the rest of the night. I just count the minutes until they leave.

I call Laura as soon as I hear the bells jingle when I walk out the door for the night.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Tumblr: purpleisbetter


End file.
